Is it me or are public sector workers far more illiterate than their private sector counterparts? Some of them really cannot write for toffee:

– spelling = shit
– grammar = shocking
– punctuation = often non-existent
– ability to make sense in general = rare
– ability to figure out what the ‘other party’ wants to understand and provide a clear and eligible response = no chance
– ability to answer a question with something that at least makes partial sense = dribble

And age doesn’t seem to have any impact on it; 20’s, 30’s, 40’s … they’re all at it.

It just pisses me off that I’m forever asking said people to clarify what they’re getting at. Fed up wasting my time trying to figure it out – seem to keep firing stuff back at them more and more these days.

Rant over.

Just you. About the same IME

That was spelt far too well… certainly not a private sector rant.

No capitals.
No expletives.
An orgnaised list.

Utter rubbish infact.

2/10

Ah, those were the days …

Utter rubbish in fact.

TFTFY

I’m forever asking said people to clarify what they’re getting at.

Right, and they’re the stupid ones?

Ooooh get her!

You might want to consider your usage of the hyphen and colon 😉

provide a clear and eligible response

Sorry, what were you saying about clarity? 😉

Right, and they’re the stupid ones?

Yep, most of the time.

*strikes ‘incentivise with toffees’ from ‘list of good commissioning practice’*

“eligible response” Good choice of words! LOL

“Cannot” Try “can not” or “can’t” next time.

You might want to consider your usage of the hyphen and colon

Colon to open bulleted list.

hyphens used as bullets

hyphen used in place of en rule or dash. Semi colon looks a bit formal eh wot?

Given the limitations of web-based tomfoolery, no arguments here.

@S_S, Op is correct saying “cannot”. It is one word, not two.
Source:
cannot, v.

Pronunciation: /’kæn?t/

the ordinary modern way of writing can not: see can v.

Oxford English Dictionary Second edition, 1989; online version November 2010.

Your post isn’t all that great either by the way 🙂

– ability to figure out what the ‘other party’ wants to understand and provide a clear and eligible response = no chance

Oh the ironery!

Can someone translate that for me? I just can’t decipher what it is he’s trying to say………

😉
😀

I recieved an email yesterday with a strange greeting:

“Hope your well?”

Hope my well is what? Full? We have indoor plumbing these days!

I don’t fink grammer & speeling is getting wearse, just that it is gettink more visible cos peeple have more interent access. Maybe we should go back tert Dark Ages when Latin was the only written language and the mass popluation were kept in there plaice ie shear iggorance. 😛

I’m in my 50s. (no apostrophe)

The Spanish might drop the personal pronouns but in English you shouldn’t.

A colon rather than a semicolon should start your list of ages.

Public-sector workers and their private-sector conterparts. (with hyphens to avoid ambiguity)

Did you mean a legible response?

Your English is nothing to be proud of Spacemonkey. Which sector do you work in?

Isn’t it just that you get more written stuff from public sector employees?
I work in the privite sector and there’s some pretty bad writing (eg, me) but it never gets out to the public.

And equals signs? Really?

This,

“ability to answer a question with something that at least makes partial sense”,

does not equal this,

“dribble”.

Yet your “rant” infers that it does.

Some of you are being a bit too literal here. Was just making a few comments about how some people (often in senior roles that demand communicating regularly to 1000’s of staff) can struggle to string a paragraph together that makes sense.

legible

Doh! You got me there 🙂

You mean something along those lines:

“Dear Mr. ——————
Your application for ————– has been unsuccessful as you do not meet the following requirement:
The applicants must live in Ireland or in The Common Travel Area, i.e. United Kingdom, Isle of Man, Channel Islands etc., for a minimum of 3 years.
From your application I understand you have lived in the UK for 13 years so you do not meet the above.
You are allowed to appeal against this decision should you disagree with it.(…)

1000s
I was

If you are going to start a thread about writing standards at least learn form the corrections.

That’s quality, HC. Was that a council/local gov?

spacemonkey – Member

Some of you are being a bit too literal here. Was just making a few comments about how some people (often in senior roles that demand communicating regularly to 1000’s of staff) can struggle to string a paragraph together that makes sense.

No you weren’t.

You stated that in your opinion public sector workers are far more illiterate than their private sector counterparts.

You’ve provided no evidence to substantiate your claim.

So do you have something against public sector workers in general or are you just a bit of an opinionated knob?
No offence 😀

If you are going to start a thread about writing standards at least learn form the corrections.

I’ll repeat: Some of you are being a bit too literal here.

I’m not interested in playing the English teacher here. Just voicing an opinion.

Greenhouses…

Just voicing an opinion. airing a prejudice.

The Southern Yeti – Member

That was spelt far too well… certainly not a private sector rant.

Spelled? Spelt is a wheat species, I think?

I’m confused now… do I work in the wrong sector… or not?

You don’t capitalise after a colon. You could usefully have used a semicolon before ‘just voicing’.

Edukator – Member

1000s
I was

If you are going to start a thread about writing standards at least learn form the corrections.
The more we find fault with others, the more mistakes we seem to make.

You are correct Coffeking, Spelt is an ancient species of wheat.

But also the past participle of spell according to the OED.

Social Welfare Local Office in my town. Quality, isn’t it?

@coffeeking, you’re correct: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_spell_the_past_tense_of_spell

You’ll find lots of typos in my posts, MrOvershoot, not so many common errors. I’ve noted that people who start threads of this nature generally don’t realise how bad their own English is. I only pick people up on their English use when they criticise others. It would be far too much effort to proof read every one of my own posts before hitting submit.

Semi colon looks a bit formal eh wot?

I love semi-colons. I didn’t discover them until my thirties; not stopping now.

I only pick people up on their English use when they criticise others I feel the need to be pedantic.

TFTFY 😉

Resorting to acronyms is unfair. I’m sure you’d have made an error if you’d tried to type that in full.